A rough start

We have been homeschooling for half a school year thus far. To be real the first half sucked. I feel like I am crawling out of the ick of it all. We decided on a whim, we hoped would help, to turn our house upside down to create a better space to school to fix a few logistical problems with our classroom. It put our schoolroom in the center of our home (our former living room)which means I can't fill it up with crap I don't want to deal with and then use it as excuse to not face schooling that day. Our playroom/office became a family room and the small dining room where we were schooling is now the playroom. After a month I love the new setup and I think the kids do to. We used this opportunity to setup the workbox system so it was functional for the older two, it is working out great. I am running out of "fun" ideas for the boxes but really like that we are getting through our day by 12:00 and that kids know what to expect.

Here are the pictures
These are the kids desks, I got small laptop desks from IKEA along with some organizing containers. They each have a clock (we are working on time alot lately) and a dry erase board via dry erase contact paper. The shelf in the middle is for workboxes I used IKEA magazine boxes and Cordelia uses a binder with a few of her "boxes".


This is the other side of the room we have our dining room table where we will eventually start eating at again. A giant dresser for all my junk I mean craft supplies. My desk and rocking chair which I hope to turn into a reading area. I also had to move my little one and her desk because she was being disruptive but she is very happy with the change and gets some extra special attention from "teacher" being so close.

10 Months Old

My little pied Piper turned 10 months old just days ago. She looks more excited than I am that she is closing in on one year of age.



This photo is currently the only photographic evidence of the perfectly Piperiffic nose scrunch present in any emotion that she expresses. Happy, tired, sad, pissed, hungry, trying to get attention, etc.

Weighing in at a mere 14lbs 7oz she is a tiny ball of energy, crawling, cruising furniture, screaming shrill high pitch squeals of both joy and anger for hours on end.

She can polish of bowl after bowl of baby food until she literally explodes or loses all mobility because of her giant full belly, she does not have an off switch or volume control for that matter.

She says Mama and Bubba which makes her Bubba very happy. She calls for Troy with a sound that resembles a gorilla trying to get your attention "uh" "uh".

She is piperly perfect in every way. And yes I use her name in place of many words because really everything she does is just so very Piper that they should be renamed when talking about her.

I am glad I didn't miss it.

She learned to swing herself and if that wasn't spectacular enough she leaned her head all the way back mid swing "to fly" she reminds me of how wonderful the simplest things can be. I still call her baby, but she is getting so big.

Something Yummy!!!

I found this recipe a while back and with an over abundance of black beans we decided to try it out. It rocked my socks off! I have eaten a lot of veggie burgers tried in vain to like them no dice, but this glorious mound of beans and rice was spectacular. A must try and let me just say it can be mixed any which way with different seasonings and still rock. We tried it with the addition of chili powder, red bell pepper & green chilies served on a tortilla for our meatless taco night. It tastes so good the kids didn't know the difference their only complaint was that it was too spicy (weak).

Our Handmade Christmas

It was ordered madness but madness all the same. I got everything done before Christmas Eve which is a great accomplishment for me. I thought I would share some of the things I made because somethings turned out awesome and I am still just a little tickled.

So lets start with a kind of last minute gift that went together exactly as I imagined it would something that never ever ever happens).

A Play Market Stand

Complete with reusable grocery bags, metal baskets for shopping, a bell for service, felt money, cloth price tags with velcro to change up the prices.


And this was what started it all an ugly rusty but working tin toy register bought on Ebay for $1.

Thinking I want to blog again.

I need an outlet, a little schoolwork of my own. Some concrete proof I am getting more done than it looks like on the outside. A checklist of words and pictures. So this is me trying.